Hello December!

Hello December!
The 12th and final chapter. The final curtain call.

Here are some things to ponder this month.

As we begin the last month of the year, make this month a season of letting go of things you refuse to bring into the New Year.

Reflect on those things that brought success as well as failures. Both are excellent teachers.

Never forget the hard stuff you went through this year, it was meant to build you, not destroy you.

It’s never too late to start over…even in December.

Always look up, dream, keep hoping, never lose that child like wonder as you press into Jesus this month. And if you live where it snows, don’t forget to examine a single snowflake, it will make you smile as you take in God’s gift of winter.

Found this is my journal. I didn’t write it but I must of thought it was worthy to record it and come back to.

“Raw dependence on God is when you feel under qualified, overwhelmed, uncertain, and trust Him anyway. This is exactly where God wants you because this is where He performs His greatest miracles”

May this month bring you joy, and miracles as we close out this year, celebrating our Savior’s birth.

Blessings,
Paula

““For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10-11

Testimony Tuesday

If you belong to God and His Spirit resides in you, you are His ambassador. You are automatically enlisted into His army.

Having a relationship with Christ goes far beyond than just getting into heaven.

You are a walking billboard for Christ. As a born again believer we are possessed by the Holy Spirit, and with that we have the ability to encourage and influence others around us to make a difference just by our actions.

The following video is about making a difference in someone’s life.

When I was growing up, our family lived next door to a pastor and his family. It was the wife, Miss Judy that made a difference in my life.

I never heard the gospel until I met her. I was about nine years old then. She took me to Sunday school with her. I joined the Pioneer Girls (a Christian version of Girl Scouts).

I heard songs I’ve never heard before. One in particular that has stuck with me since. It’s an old hymn, but I remember so clearly the melody. The song is “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” —have you heard of it? There was a sweetness in that song that continues to waft in my memory every now and then to this day. (I’ll post my favorite version of this song below.)

It was because of Judy, that I am a believer today. Although, I wasn’t saved until several years later. God watered those seeds that Miss Judy planted. Years later she passed away. One day I’ll see her again, and tell her how much she made a difference in my life.

Take a look at this video of a young man who discovered a family that made a difference in his own life.

https://youtu.be/b1bSlS6OWTs?

Lyrics to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer:
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wand’ring from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my yielded heart to Thee.
Let me know Thee in Thy fullness;
Guide me by Thy mighty hand,
Till, transformed, in Thine own image
In Thy presence I shall stand.

The second video kind of ties in with Davi’s video I posted yesterday.

We make plans in life, but how many times have those plans either failed or are delayed? Or, perhaps you just want things to go right for a change, but God has something else in mind.

I love this woman’s testimony because it is a great reminder that we will inevitably encounter detours when it comes to well thought out plans.
That is just the way it is sometimes.

There is purpose in the redirection.

Like Davi said in yesterday’s post…”Be so rooted in God’s plan that even disappointed feels like God’s protection.”

Whether it is for protection or simply an encounter where you will either bless someone’s day or you will be blessed. The delay will be worth it when God’s hands are upon it.

So, try not to be bothered, and embrace the delay or detour and see what God has in store for you. There is always a blessing waiting for us when we trust God’s direction.


““For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9

In case you are all wondering what an Ebenezer is, (Mentioned in the lyrics of Come Thou Fount...) here is what I found out.

It is from 1 Samuel 7:12
'Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”'

Called its name Ebenezer, saying “Thus far the LORD has helped us”: Samuel knew the nation needed to remember this amazing victory, which came to a humble and repentant Israel. The LORD won this battle, not Israel – so he named the stone Ebenezer, meaning “stone of help.”

We preach often about the three years of Jesus’ ministry, miracles that shook villages, words that pierced hearts, love that overturned empires. But before the three years everyone saw… there were thirty years no one applauded. The Thirty Years Heaven Kept Hidden...

Thirty years of growing, obeying, waiting. Thirty years of quiet mornings and ordinary days. Thirty years of heaven moving silently behind the curtains of human life.

From His birth in Bethlehem’s shadows… to His moment in the Temple at twelve… to His silent return to Nazareth until He was thirty: the Son of God lived in divine obscurity.

No crowds. No followers. No recorded miracles. Just God in human flesh… living a life no one would write about. And those years were not a delay, they were the design.

Because before Jesus ever opened blind eyes, He opened the Scriptures in the silence of His hidden years. Before He ever calmed the storm, He learned to calm His heart in prayer. Before He ever carried the cross, He carried wood in Joseph’s workshop. Before He ever preached the Kingdom, He practiced obedience in the unseen places.

Thirty years of preparation for three years of purpose. Heaven was not in a hurry… and maybe you shouldn’t be either. Maybe that’s where you are right now: in a long, quiet season that feels forgotten. You wonder why nothing is moving, why God seems silent, why your life feels too ordinary for someone He called.

But friend, listen: If Jesus was shaped in hidden years, why do we think our own hidden seasons are meaningless? Maybe the obscurity you hate is the very place God is molding you. Maybe the silence is sharpening your ears to His whisper. Maybe the routine is strengthening muscles you will need later. Maybe the waiting is not punishment… but preparation for an assignment that requires depth, maturity, and surrender. Heaven does not rush those it intends to use greatly. God is not ignoring you. He is molding you.

Every unnoticed prayer, every unseen obedience, every quiet “yes” in a room with no audience, it is building a foundation strong enough to carry the weight of your calling. Jesus waited thirty years. And when the moment finally came, He didn’t have to announce Himself. The Father announced Him.

And He will do the same for you. Stay faithful in the quiet. Stay surrendered in the unseen. Stay obedient in the ordinary.

Because when God brings you out, it will be in His timing, for His glory, and with a strength forged in the hidden years ☕️
~Watchful Believer~